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About 3 decades ago when i used bait to catch a few fish for a meal or 2 in my boat i would look out local for snapper, salmon, drummer or some fish with a drag pulling capacity. Once i had caught a couple of these species I would move on to the appetisers like gar, tommies, or even a couple of good sized leatheries. Now for the garfish as i always had some pilchards left i would carefully fillet a couple of half frozen pillies & cut them in long slivers appox 40mm & about 5mm wide these would be carefully put on a size 8 longshank gamakatsu or diiachi hook with a half hitch holdi

A common principle of fishing is to try and match the hatch, or in other words, use bait that is the same or similar to the target fish diet; but considering the primary dietary components of southern garfish are seagrasses of the family Zosteraceae and planktonic amphipods, it's not really possible. Instead, generations of fishos have used substitute baits for southern garfish including; maggots bread chicken slivers of garfish Which bait to use seems to be a personal preference (I stick with maggots and chicken). Maggots Maggots are probably the

"Slivers of Garfish I've never tried this, but I've heard good reports of taking a few slivers off the first garfish you catch and using this as bait. This is suggested as a way to mix up your bait if the garfish are being timid". Yep this works. Also dip into their green poop - with all baits. Slivers off pilchard woks great as well. The rubber gents also work. Also slivers off cockles & cheese. A touch of aniseed can stir them up. Also when timid, no float. Just hook & bait at the back of boat drifting naturally with the current.

Add in tiny bits of prawn, over the last year or so and after a reasonable amount of side by side comparison I've come to the conclusion that our gar in both gulfs probably prefer the prawn more than anything else, barely touch squid, okish on cockle flesh, certainly like gents but if I had to catch one to save my life 2 years ago I'd have said "I'll use gents thanks" but now it's prawn, which kind of makes sense given the previous post on diet since prawns are kind of giant versions of their natural, non salad based, diet.

Great advice / info MAH. And yes, slithers of Gar flesh do work - just need to catch one Gar to get those slithers though lol Red meat slithers, like chicken slithers, are also another alternative that I have had success with. (Now some may say 'can't use meat/chicken' - well as slithers it is all ok and given the ok by Fishery guys/girls walking the planks)

This information is based on the Honours thesis undertaken by Jason Earl in 2007, through Flinders University. All credit goes Jason for this knowledge. The information is based upon samples of southern sea garfish that were collected at two locations in Gulf St. Vincent between March and July 2007. Most sampling was conducted at Port Parham, while fewer samples were also taken from Bay of Shoals, Kangaroo Island. Garfish were sampled for this study in two ways: they were purchased from commercial fishers after haul-net capture; and captured at night using dab nets. Hook and line were not

LURE OBSESSIVE Okay! I am a little crazy about lure fishing Yellow Fin Whiting. I need to have at least a couple, if not more, wading & casting sessions a week. But the obsession does not stop when I am out of the water. I have rarely, in recent years, fished a single lure straight out of the box. Every lure needs to be tinkered with and modified. I and a few others are starting to think, tinkering, modifications, and multiple lure options are starting to be a necessity to ensure ongoing success when lure fishing YFW. There is some anecdotal evide

If they are not biting, I also like to dip the baits in tuna oil or halco catch scent

I enjoy fishing for gar. It is often a challenge of balancing a finesse presentation with just the right amount of burley and right size bait and hook and size of float. Landbased its even more tricky as you need to factor in casting weight to get your rig out a good distance while still showing bites and not tangling. Often I go down to 4lb line and a tiny short shank hook to get the bite. I also like using alternative baits and have had some great success on stuff no one else uses. Silver fish is very popular as a gar bait in Vic and occasionally sold here in tackle stores. Mo

Good info @projoe Look forward to your flyfishing Gar post

I seriously love this stuff, it explains why they love a gent or small piece of prawn and are always covering everything in their poop, keep em coming.